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expert assistance. But surely he cannot be giving the expert views of the Department, for the Department cannot have made the mistake of thinking that the original arrangement was not a bargain. The Department, at an}- rate, cannot have been ignorant of the reports of the earlier Commission. The Department must have known that they were bound'to look, after the Natives, and if they did not know, 1 suggest to your Worships that the point should be made very clear in your report that it is about time they did know. One position taken up by Dr. Fitchett, which your Worships will remember, was this: lie says, " I agree that if possible the Natives should be given the opportunity of competing for these leases." He says, " I agree that that concession to the Natives will be little less than a sham unless the Natives are assisted by finance/" _ Then he goes on to say, " But if we cannot finance them, then it is in the interests of the Natives to allow the present lessees to convert." Well, that point needs, I suggest, particular consideration, because h is obviously the point of attack when Parliament meets, the point at which the lessees will direct their attack. They will try to block any measures in support of financing these Natives, and then they will produce the Public Trustee's views that if the Natives cannot be given finance, then the right of conversion ought to be given to the lessees. I ask your Worships to consider that, and if you take the same view as I do, I ask you to make the report so that that attack of the lessees can be successfully opposed. I confess I cannot see that it is a logical argument, even supposing the Natives could not take advantage this time of their opportunity to compete. Ido submit that it is illogical to contend that therefore they ought to be debarred for eve)' from any future opportunities to compete, when we originally guaranteed those opportunities to them. Now I turn to the evidence which I have led. I submit that I have established everyone of the points which I promised your Worships I would establish by my witnesses. Your Worships have ample evidence of the movement since the Parihaka days, and that is supported in the oddest possible way by a forecast made by Dr. Pomare before the Parihaka days were over. This movement is no recent invention, because Dr. Pomare foresaw it, and any man who had studied the Natives as carefully as he had could have foreseen that this was what was going to take place directly Te Whiti and Tohu died; and your Worships have had evidence of the marvellous way in which they have gone ahead. There is evidence of successful dairy-farming despite the difficulties which do not stand in the way of the pakeha. The Maoris who have given evidence, many of them who are milking successfully, were without finance when they started; they had to work for the pakeha and earn a little, and then clear the lands themselves. Sometimes they leased their lands free of rent in order to get them cleared, and some cleared them themselves. Another point that must militate against successful farming is that they had no permanency of tenure, and they also had to take the risk of having lands which they had cultivated taken from them and leased to the pakeha. There could not be much greater forces tending to give a set-back to the advancement of a race. The disappointment of a Maori getting his land into cultivation and then having it taken from him and leased to the pakeha must be great. I do not criticize the Public Trustee in this connection —I do not know whether he was right or wrong, and I have not inquired and I am not inquiring—but I do say that the Act which gave the Public Trustee power and directed him to do that was wrong from the very beginning —absolutely wrong. Your Worships must have been impressed with the evidence of that Maori who said, " I brought my land into cultivation, I was farming it successfully, when one day it was taken from me and leased to a pakeha." Asked who it was leased to he said, " Solway." " And what are you doing now?" "I am working for Solway." I pointed out and contended in my opening that if the Natives are to be disappointed now this movement may die, and I brought evidence in support of that contention. Surely, w-hen we are doing no injustice to the pakeha in keeping him to his bargain, it is a little unreasonable for the pakeha to ask that he should be given something more than he bargained for, when the result of that gift will be to set back the whole of the Maori advancement in Taranaki. Your Worships will remember that never once in the whole history of the west coast leases have the Natives asked to depart one iota from their bargain. They recognize that these lessees are in for thirty years. Although originally it was arranged that leases should only be granted for twenty-one years, they do not ask that the nine years balance of the leases should be taken from the lessees; thej r are quite prepared that the lessees should have everything they bargained for; the lessees shall continue in their leases up till the end of the term, and then have the right to compete with them for the leases. The Natives say that Sir Jaiues Carroll promised them, that that would be so. They do not object to the pakeha competing--they cannot and do not object. While the Native does not depart one iota from the bargain, you find the pakeha departing all along the line. If we are to keep our bargain with the Native, we have to give him ample opportunity of competing with the pakeha for these leases. If there was no Advances to Settlers Department then the Native could not complain if the pakeha. managed to get loans from outsiders and he could not get them, but once we have started the Advances to Settlers Department, and we advance to the pakeha to enable him to compete, then surely it is only keeping our bargain to give the Native an equal opportunity of competing. It must have been assumed in 1.881 that the Native and the pakeha would have equal opportunities of competing, and the Native only asks now for that opportunity. Now I come to deal with the question of finance. Your Worships will remember I stated that in conversation with Dr. Fitchett I learned that his view was that you must protect the Natives from themselves when you are givinothem any finance —that you must not assist them to do themselves damage. The Chairman: Is there not a little too much of the idea that the Native has not grown up ? Mr. Bell: I submit there is. I submit that the Natives are of age, but I am going to make a suggestion which will give ample opportunity of preventing any such calamity as Dr. Fitchett thinks possible. Your Worships will remember that in dealing with the loans that have already been advanced on leases to pakehas by the Advances to Settlers Department I contended, and I

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